[Maria]

Ok now the worse thing I can do in the morning before I've warmed up is to have to bend forward tho have to feed the cats right away and often scoop litter so plenty big ouches going on there re my stiff back. Once I'm warmed up usually after a hot shower I seem to be much better with this.

Getting down on the floor on my knees to look for things I am finding harder to do esp things under the bed... need to warm up really good for that and look much later in the day!

A reacher/grabber is still a very useful thing to have as far as I'm concerned so that if I drop something I really need and I'm too sore to get it I don't have to bend or squat~ at least if it's in plain sight. I have one next to my bed as well as a cane for the few times I've had to use a cane in the middle of the night either due to my back being in terrible spasms or my feet killing me so much it's hard to walk. Again stiffness seems to really affect me after periods of rest at night. I don't have a cane here at dh's and I sleep more or less on the floor (sleeping bag/camping type equip) and find it fairly comfortable tho sometimes hard to get up from this position tho I manage.

I think I still have a few braces left over from yesteryear somewhere tho have not used one in quite some time. I weigh a tad more than I did at the time so mine used to be pretty small and now I don't think they'd quite fit. I may recheck one out just to have and see if it makes any diff w/sitting and/or yard work and such. Used to wear one when I vacumned but haven't felt I needed to for a pretty long time now.

Still never hurts to have these things handy "just in case" and none mentioned really take up any space so don't want to use that as an excuse for myself.

Time to get up from sitting and start getting busy around here (dh's). Lola was sick yesterday so spent most of the day worrying about her!